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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Hello, everyone! First I must say, please excuse the new blog layout. We have hired Sarah of Sadie Olive to redo our blog and it will hopefully be done at the end of July. I am so so so excited about it! Until then I am playing around with some templates because I really want to be able to upload larger photos. I am still messing around with this so please forgive me. I think earlier today airplanes were showing up on the sidebars and I most definitely was not going for that look. Haha!

Here is a little sneak preview of some of the new clutches my sister, Jamie, is working on that we will debut when we reopen our shop in August. I will show you some better photos later that include pictures of the lining (which might be my favorite part - they are lined with beautiful fabric that adds a fun little punch!) Anyway, the first one is a bridal clutch that is basically finished and the second one is a clutch that could have multiple uses that is still being tweaked (we are playing around with different flower options and sizing of the flower, etc). I am so excited about them! I especially LOVE the large ruffle at the top of the bridal clutch!

This one is made from Marshmellow Cream Silk Dupioni

And this one is made from a linen colored muslinShe also sent me a few adorable pics of Lillian from when we were up in NH a couple of weeks ago. This first one completely sums up Lillie. I have her dressed up in fancy shoes (from Joyfolie) and a big lace hair clip (we had just finished shooting the Audrey Hepburn tutu) and all she wanted to do was run around and play basketball with the boys!Helping make some hot fudge sauce.....mmmmm, was it good!Trying on Moosie's glasses

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Hello, everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend. Ours was quite busy, but a lot of fun and so hot I thought we were all going to melt (it has been between 100 and 105 pretty much all week!). It was an exciting weekend because Lillian Annabel said her name for the first time. We all call her something different from Lillie, Lillian, Lillabel and Lillie Belle and even the occassional Lil. Her vocabularly has considerably expanded the past couple of weeks and I thought I was going to be able to get her to say Lillie because I thought that would be easiest for her, even though I prefer to call her Lillabel because it means "beautiful lilac" which has great meaning to me. I am in a hurry now so I won't explain it, but I will at another time. Anyway, my sister, Dana, was watching her and they were in a candy shop that Lillie had dragged her into (yes, thanks to my sweet tooth Lillie knows where every chocolate shop in town is - haha) and the girl behind the counter asked what her name was. Dana was about to answer for her, seeing how she's never said her name before and Lillie chirped out "Lil Belle"! Haha! Dana said that she said it twice and then she said it for us about 5 times later that night! It is amazing how much pride you can feel as a mom over such a simple thing!

The rest of the weekend was quite hectic. We have been busy getting ready for our July plans. My hubby is a college basketball coach and that means that every July he is basically gone for the entire month because that is their biggest recruiting period. He has a pretty crazy schedule most of the year and is gone a good bit, except for May and June. That is why those are quickly becoming my favorite months!

Last year when he left, Lillie and I went to New Hampshire to be with my family for the month and that is where we finally got Dear Lillie off the ground. We are going to do the same thing again this year and head up there this week. I already have my sewing machine up there, now I am just running around trying to figure out how to pack all of my supplies and making lists, all while finishing up all of the orders that need to go out before I leave. I hate that Jon has to be gone for so long. It is going to be so much harder this year because Lillie is older now and is really going to miss him! They have so much fun together. I am looking forward to doing more Dear Lillie brainstorming, though, getting some new products made, refilling some of our in-stock items and I am really excited about our professional photo shoot with Pizzuti Studios. Anyway, that is just a little tiny update on what is going on here. I have lots more to share especially about some changes coming to our blog and a few other things but I really need to get sewing if I am going to get all of my orders out before I head out of town, so I had better get working, but first:

The winner of the Annabel Tank Giveaway is:

Alisha!!!!!

(I may be blind but I can't find your e-mail address anywhere and when I click on your name I can't find one on your blogger profile either - so PLEASE e-mail me at dearlillie@hotmail.com tonight to let me know what size you would like and your address! ) Thanks so much! And thanks again to all of you who entered!

I plan on doing a few more posts before I leave and then as soon as I get settled in up in NH we will be hosting another giveaway so keep checking back!

And last, here is a link to a gorgeous post I just read on Urban Farmgirl's blog! You definitely should check it out! How incredible is this:

Friday, June 25, 2010

Happy Friday! First, I just want to remind everyone we will be closing our Etsy shop later today at around 5:30 and won't be reopening until August 16th!

Second, don't forget to enter out giveaway for one of our Annabel Tanks. Giveaway ends Sunday! (You can add entries through the day Sunday and we will announce the winner Sunday night).

Okay, and now on to my post:

One of the things that I have really loved about Etsy is that is brings back into play the old-fashioned bartering system. Jon thinks it is quite hilarious, but I LOVE it. (Actually, seeing how we haven't had to buy anything for Lillie in quite some time - he loves it too!) For the most part I only do trades for things for Lillie but a few weeks ago I saw these pillows at Lacey In The Sky and couldn't resist! She was willing to do a trade and these arrived yesterday! How cute are they? The boy is her standard silhouette, but then I sent her a silhouette of Lillie and she did that for me as well.

Here they are in our family room: (I still want to paint the walls a dark brownish grey in here and I REALLY want to replace the furry pillows behind the new silhouette ones, but they are all I have lying around right now - I really want to go with a burlap pillow... or at least I think, anyway!)

Here is what the chairs looked like with my VERY old pillows! And I didn't have matching ones which drove me crazy but I hadn't had time to make new ones.
After getting those, I ended up playing around in my dining room as well. I moved the moss balls from my mantel and decided to try them in my dough bowl.

I got our 4 side chairs in our dining room for 6 dollars a piece - how gross were they? Haha! Yes, that is GREEN FELT on the seats. I painted them Ashley Grey and recovered the seats with our old draperies from our last house.

Whoops - Jon tossed the bread over to me the other night when we were eating dinner and it hit the chandelier. I totally forgot to straighten the candles back out until looking at this photo - haha!

We have several new things to that I plan on showing you all soon. Here is a sneak peak at a dress my mom made for Lillie and that she may be making for the shop in the fall! It is soooo cute and I can't wait to take more pics to show you all. Jamie also just finished the cutest new clutch - definitely my new favorite and a completely different look than the other ones. As soon as she sends me pictures of it I will show you!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Hello everyone.It is time for another giveaway! This time it is going to be for the Annabel Tank in Charcoal and Raspberry on Black. This is such a fun summer tank. It can be dressed up or down and comes in sizes S through XXL. This is going to be a much shorter giveaway than normal. We will announce the winner on Sunday evening!

The rules for entering are the pretty much the same as always, but there are a few new ways to enter as well, so be sure to check those out!

So, how can you enter this giveaway?

It is simple:

1) Make a comment letting us know which item(s) are your favorite or what item you would like to see as our next give-away - 1 Entry (please limit to just one comment per day; for this entry you can comment each day, though, if you would like)

2) Mention this giveaway with a link on your Facebook page: 1 Entry (in order for it to count as an entry, please write "Facebook"as its own comment in the comment section)

3) Become a fan of our Dear Lillie Facebook page: 1 Entry (in order for it to count as an entry, please write "Facebook Fan"as its own comment in the comment section)

4) Mention this giveaway on your own blog and include a photo of one of our items and link to our giveaway, - 1 Entry (Again for this to count make sure to write "blog" as a comment.)

5) Post a fan photo on our Facebook Page - 2 Entries (in order for it to count as an entry, please write "fan photo" its own comment in the comment section, and make sure to do it two times so it will count as two extra entries for you)

6) Become a follower of this blog - 2 Entries (in order for it to count as an entry, please write "follower" as its own comment in the comment section, and make sure to do it two times so it will count as two extra entries for you, or if you are already a follower, make sure to write "follower" also as a comment two times)

7) Make a purchase - 2 Entries for each item purchased (in order for it to count as an entry, please write "purchase" as its own comment in the comment section, and make sure to do it two times so it will count as two extra entries for you - thanks Meredith K. for this idea!)

In case you are wondering why in the world you have to comment each time you blog or if you become a follower, it is because we use the number of comments to plug into the random number generator and that is how we know what number to plug in and who matches up with it - hope that makes sense.Also, if you have a blocked blogger profile please leave your e-mail address when you enter so that we can contact you. For everyone with an open profile or who we know, then you don't need to worry about that part.

Good luck to you all and we will announce the winner on June 27th!

Also, today as I was checking out Joyfolie's updates and saw a link to Jessica's new blog post about the cutest new pair of shoes so I of course clicked on it and imagine my surprise when I saw a picture of Lillie! I was so excited. As I mentioned just a few posts ago, she has been such an inspiration to me!

And don't forget that we are closing our shop on Friday and won't be reopening until August 16th so make sure if you are going to purchase anything to do it by Friday!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Finally, here are some pictures of our newest tutu, the Audrey Hepburn! My mom told me she had made this newest design weeks ago and I had her send me one so Lillie could model it. Well, to say it was an unsuccessful modeling session would be an understatement! She refused to stand or sit still and it was almost 100 degrees out that day. We both ended up soaked in sweat and I didn't not end up with a single usable shot! Argh! I ended up waiting to retake them when we were up in NH last weekend for my cousin's wedding. It was a warm day, but MUCH cooler than it has been down here in VA so it went so much more smoothly and I am so much happier with these shots. Of course, then my computer died before I could finish editing them so it has been a whole 'nother week! So, finally here it is. It is also now for sale in our shop.

Don't forget, we will be closing up shop on Friday (to revamp our line and get prepared for the fall and holiday season) and won't be reopening until August 16th, so if there is anything you are eyeing make sure to get it by the end of this week!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Well, I FINALLY got my computer back! This really nice boy named Tim spent the last week working in it. It looked like it was going to be toast, but he was able to get it running again....at least for now, anyway. I am having some trouble still with Photoshop, but at least my computer is turning on! Haha! So, now I have a ton of posts to do. I have so many e-mails, convos and comments to catch up on tonight, though, so this one will be brief! I knew we needed to announce the winner of our latest give-away today, though, so here is a quick post to announce our winner (and, of course, a few shots of Lillie).

So, here is what the True Random Number Generator came up with for us:

Yay!!!! Congratulations to Shanna of the blog Miss Arkansas Bride! Yay!!!! You win both the ring-bearer pillow and the clutch! (How fitting that you actually could use the pillow as a ring-bearer pillow! I thought for sure it wouldn't be a bride that won and it would end up being used as an accent pillow).

Don't forget to check back as we will be hosting another fun give-away later this week! And check back tomorrow for a post with photos of our newest tutu, the Audrey Hepburn Tutu!

And of course, I can't leave you without a few photos of my little Lillabel! She loves to help husk the corn on the cob. Here she is doing it out on the daybed on our back porch. For some reason she LOVES the corn raw and can pretty much eat a whole ear that way. She doesn't like it as much once it is cooked. She also enjoys biting into each ear to find the one she likes best before chowing down. Yuck!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Well, I STILL don't have my laptop and therefore don't have my photos or my editing programs, so I thought I would do a post on one of my FAVORITE blogs. Over the past few months I have shared several blogs that I enjoy reading. There are so many beautiful blogs out there that I have fallen in love with, but there are two that I especially enjoy because of how inspiring they have been to me. They were the first two blogs I discovered and they quickly sucked me into the world of blogging. Not only are they beautiful blogs, with stunning photography, they are written by young women with families who run very successful handmade clothing and accessory lines. How they juggle everything that they do, is completley beyond me, but it has truly been inspirational to follow their journeys. One of them is Joyfolie, which I shared with you all a few weeks ago, and the other one is the Chronicles of Windy Ridge, which I want to share with you now.

The Chronicles of Windy Ridge is written by Jennifer, the woman behind Eden's Bouquet. If you haven't ever checked out Eden's Bouquet I highly recommend you do. It is such a visual treat! She has such a gorgeous style and I love the vintage feel that everything she does portrays. She is also gorgeous and when you see a picture of her you will NOT believe how many children she has! (I am not going to tell you, you will have to head on over there to find out). I dream of having a houseful of children like that - although, I still need to do a lot of convincing of poor Jon! Haha!

Anyway, here is just a sampling from her blog:

Here are some photos of her home:

I LOVE the concrete countertops she just did!

Here are some photos of her GORGEOUS clothing line:

And here are some photos from our friend Jenn of Forty Toes of her gorgeous daughter Stella Marie wearing one of their gowns.

Here she is wearing a Dear Lillie hair clip with an Eden's Bouquet dress.

Okay, well that is is for now. I was hoping to be in bed by two because I have been pulling WAY too many 4AM nights, but it is already after three and I still have several orders to package up and print labels for so I had better get to work! Ahhhhh!

Don't forget there are just a few days left to enter our give-away!!!!